My goal is to guide students to a place where they find a deep joy, dependence, and hope by persisting in the things of God.
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.” Acts 2:42 (CSB)
Acts 2:42 is a brief description of the earliest Christian Church. There is more to the description in the following verses, but verse 42 has been resting at the forefront of my mind recently. As we prepare for the coming school year, I am confronted with the necessity of what the church was doing. The devotion of the early Church to the things that mattered most is challenging and inspiring. Devotion itself is an idea we could dedicate a lot of space to. When I think of the word devotion though, I can tend to let my mind associate that with something beyond me. I picture a monk who has sold all of his things and completely devoted themselves only to the pursuit of God. Or I picture very mature Christians practiced in disciplines who are able to participate in great acts of spiritual devotion. I picture something that would feel unattainable especially to new Christians. A synonym for the word used here in the original text is “persist.” They persisted in these things. When things were hard, or they wanted to quit, or they were faced with a tragedy they persisted.
You’ve probably met a kid that has a great deal of persistence. My little brother loves the movie Cars. He’s 7 and all he wants to do is watch this movie. He will ask over and over again when we can watch Cars or play with his Lightning McQueen car. No matter how many times we have watched it that week or even that day he will never tire of it. No matter how many times we tell him no or remind him there are other things we can do he persists. I am convinced that with the devotion and persistence of a child we could see a revival within our generation.
My goal as a campus minister is to guide people to this place of persistence. Not to a place where they have everything figured out. The text doesn’t say that the early church was without sin, in fact, most of the New Testament proves to us they were pretty messed up, just like we can be. No, my goal is to guide students to a place where they find a deep joy, dependence, and hope by persisting in the things of God. Whether a new Christian or someone who has known the Lord from the time they were a child, everyone must find this place of persistence. When they do, they will begin to grow and develop into their faith. They will begin to make their faith their own, sharing it with those around them because their faith is too good not to share. It will define everything in their life instead of simply being something they do on a Sunday morning.
If we do our jobs at Campus Christians, we create a community that exemplifies Acts 2:42. Sure we do a lot of other things. We play games, watch movies, go on trips. Those are all great things that matter and are good for our students. But at the core of who we are is Acts 2:42. And when we live out Acts 2:42 we can trust that God will allow us to experience Acts 2:47.
“And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
The good news is that this truth isn’t only for our campus ministry, but it’s true for you. Persist in the things of God. Devote yourself to scripture, prayer, communion, and fellowship. Chase after these things with everything in your being and God will be faithful. It won’t be easy, but God will be there, and the revival will begin.
